The Lady of Shallott’ is a Victorian ballad. ‘Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere’ and ‘Galahad’, the poem recasts Arthurian subject matter loosely based on medieval sources. It was loosely based on the Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astolat, as recounted in a thirteenth-century Italian novella entitled Donna di Scalotta. Tennyson focused on the Lady’s ‘isolation in the tower and her decision to participate in the living world. Illustrated by the painting by the same title by William Holman Hunt
1833/England